Hungarian higher education receives 2.5 times more financial support from the private sector than from the state and this practice should continue, Minister of State for Higher Education István Klinghammer declared at a press conference held prior to the opening of the Swedish-Hungarian Innovation Days education-related event on Wednesday in Budapest.

Ambassador of Sweden to Hungary Karin Olofsdotter pointed out in her speech that both Swedish and Hungarian innovation lack the willingness to take risks, whereas in the United States the opposite is true. She stated that Swedish schools have entrepreneur clubs, where students can try out their ideas, encouraging them to continue inventing in the future as well.

Deputy State Secretary for Competitiveness at the Ministry of National Economy László Túróczy spoke about Hungary’s innovation strategy until 2020, calling it a knowledge-based model. In his view, the greatest problem in Hungary in making use of knowledge, which can be solved by increased cooperation between the education and private sectors. He stated that during the next EU financial period, the largest proportion of funding will be directed towards innovation.

Deputy CEO of Ericsson Hungary Roland Jakab talked about the company’s cooperation with the Budapest University of Technology (BME) and ELTE University.

(Ministry of Human Resources)